Acting Class: Take a Seat: 01/14/09
Milton Katselas (1933-2008) worked in Hollywood as an acting teacher for thirty years. A number of well known actors studied under him including Gene Hackman, Alec Baldwin, Tom Selleck and Michelle Pfeiffer. He also directed a number of off broadway productions. He also wrote two books: Dreams into Actions (1996) and Acting Class: Take a Seat.

Katselass has the Checklist of ways to approach a scene to help an actor get the most out of his scene. There are some good points that actors or students of acting might benefit from. There is also some discussion of the methods as they were used in different films and stage plays. Unfortunately the book doesn't stay focused on the lesson plans.

The meat of the book comes in the first hundred pages (of 230) pages. The rest of the book is padded with lecture transcripts (written as scripts, of course) with Katselas cast in the leading role. I didn't like these scripted sections. They came off as a smugly written pep talk for the readers of the book.

If you are an aspiring actor, then Acting Class: Take a Seat might be for you. If you're not skip it.

books | nonfiction | Milton Katselas | 2008

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Comment #1: Friday, April, 17, 2009 at 00:09:13

Acting coach Hollywood

That is a nice book.. A must have for all the guys out there who wants to be an actor.. Maybe I should try this one.. thanks for the post..

Comment #2: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at 10:26:31

Pussreboots

Thank you for your comment.